THE MUSLIM ASSAULT ON CHRISTIANS - Militant Muslims reportedly connected with the Nigerian based Islamic terror group, Boko Haram, “reached new heights” of depravity, according to a report: after devastating the Christian village of Kalagari in a raid, they kidnapped and fled with eight women. Some of the women were later released—but only after having their ears cut off (image here).

“They Asked Him to Deny Christ”

Muslim persecution of Christians during August, 2019, alone.

November 1, 2019 

Raymond Ibrahim

This report was first published by Gatestone Institute.  Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

The following are some of the abuses that Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of August, 2019, thematically categorized:

Hate for and Violence against Christians

Cameroon: Militant Muslims reportedly connected with the Nigerian based Islamic terror group, Boko Haram, “reached new heights” of depravity, according to a report: after devastating the Christian village of Kalagari in a raid, they kidnapped and fled with eight women.  Some of the women were later released—but only after having their ears cut off (image here).  The report adds that  Boko Haram “has terrorised Christian communities in Nigeria for the last decade and has now splintered and spread its violent ideology into Cameroon, Niger and Chad.”

Nigeria: On August 29, Chuck Holton, a CBN News reporter, aired a segment on his visit with Christian refugees who had fled Boko Haram’s incursions into their villages.  Among the stories of death and devastation, the following, spoken by a young man, stood out:

“On 29 September 2014 was the day that they attacked my village. Around ten I had a call that they have killed my dad. They asked him to deny Christ and when he refused they cut off his right hand. Then he refused [again], they cut to the elbow. In which he refused, before they shot him in the forehead, the neck, and chest.” “Many of the 1,500 Christians living in this camp have similar stories,” adds Holton.

Indonesia: A Muslim preacher in a Christian majority region referred to the Christian cross as “an element of the devil,” prompting outrage among Christians and some moderates.   Sheikh Abdul Somad made the comment during a videotaped sermon when he was asked why Muslims “felt a chill whenever they saw a crucifix.”   “Because of Satan! Was his response: “There’s an evil jinn in every crucifix that wants to convert people into Christianity.”  Christians and moderates condemned his words.  Even so, “I can’t imagine the reaction if it had been another preacher of a different religion insulting an Islamic symbol,” observed one moderate. “There would have been a tsunami of protests, with the perpetrator severely punished.”  Sheikh Somad responded by releasing another video; his excuse was that he was unaware that non-Muslims might hear his words: “The Quran reciting session was held in a closed mosque, not at a stadium, a football field, nor aired on television,” he explained. “It was for Muslims internally. I was answering a question about statues and the position of the Prophet Isa (Jesus) relative to Muslims.”

Burkina Faso: Although most mainstream media downplay the religious element in Muslim on Christian violence in Africa, attacks on the Christians of Burkina Faso have become so flagrantly based on religion that the Washington Post published a report on August 21 titled,  “Islamist militants are targeting Christians in Burkina Faso.”  Its author, Danielle Paquette, explained that “A spreading Islamist insurgency has transformed Burkina Faso from a peaceful country known for farming, a celebrated film festival and religious tolerance into a hotbed of extremism.”  She noted that the jihadis have been checking people’s necks for Christian symbols, killing anyone wearing a crucifix or carrying any other Christian image.   In a separate report discussing several deadly attacks on Christians and their churches, Bishop Dabiré said, “If this continues without anyone intervening, the result will be the elimination of the Christian presence in this area and — perhaps in the future —in the entire country.

Egypt: Authorities reinstated Sheikh Yasser Burhami, a notoriously “radical” cleric and hate preacher, to the pulpit (minbar) despite strong opposition.  Burhami had previously issued numerous fatwas—edicts based on Islamic scriptures—that demand hate and hostility for non-Muslims, most specifically the nation’s largest and most visible minority, the Christian Copts, whom Burhami has referred to as “a criminal and infidel minority,” and has invoked “Allah’s curse” on them.  He once went so far as to say that, although a Muslim man is permitted to marry Christian or Jewish women (ahl al-kitab), he must make sure he still hates them in his heart—and show them this hate—because they are infidels; otherwise he risks compromising his Islam.  Burhami has also stated that churches—which he refers to as “places of polytheism (shirk) and houses of infidelity (kufr)”—must never be built in Egypt.  He issued a separate fatwa forbidding Muslim taxi and bus drivers from transporting Christian clergymen to their churches, an act he depicted as being “more forbidden than taking someone to a liquor bar.”  Burhami’s fatwas also include calling for the persecution of apostates, permitting Muslim husbands to abandon their wives to rape, permitting “marriage” to 12-year-old girls,  and banning Mother’s Day.  In a video, Dr. Naguib Ghobrial, a Coptic activist, politician, and head of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights Organization—which over the years has lodged 22 separate complaints against Burhami—repeatedly questioned Egypt’s leading religious authorities’ decision to reinstate the hate preaching sheikh:

“Is what Burhami teaches truly what Islam teaches—is that why no one has done anything to him [in regards to the 22 complaints lodged against him]?  Truly I’m shocked!  Please answer Sheikh of Al Azhar; please answer Grand Mufti: are the things Burhami teaches what Islam teaches?  Is this why none of you oppose him or joined us when we lodged complaints against him?… Why are you so silent? Amazing!”

The Slaughter of Christians

Pakistan: “A ten year old Christian child who chose to work in a dangerous scrap factory so he could support his mother who had to fend for a family of two boys and a drug-addict husband, was raped and tortured before being killed by his Muslim employers,” according to a report (with photos).  Badil, 10, worked at the men’s factory in order to support his impoverished mother, Sharifa Bibi:

“I worked hard for many hours just for the sake of my two sons so that they would not have to suffer as I have suffered without education.  My son Badil couldn’t bear to see the struggle of his mother and insisted on working to help the family—despite my insistence that he avoid work till he was older.  Badil was such a responsible son.  Daily before leaving for work he asked me what should bring in the evening from his wages.  I insisted that he kept his money for himself, but he brought groceries like sugar, rice, flour, ghee daily.”

Badil had to walk long distances and work for many hours a day to earn the equivalent of one dollar a day.  Soon his employer began to cheat him on his wages.  His mother insisted that he quit, but the boy persevered; at one point he took his younger brother, 9, with him to help.  When the employers refused to pay his brother anything for his contribution, Badil finally decided to quit—which angered his Muslim employer.  His younger brother recalls:

“As Mr Akram heard this he ran to hit Badil but Badil ran from the shop and Akram gave chase.  However, A friend of Akram was standing nearby on his motorcycle and told Akram to sit behind him, then both men chased Badil till they caught up with him. Akram then got off the motorcycle and dragged Badil back to the store.  They took Badil inside the store which is full of scrap.  For half an hour I was completely unaware of what was happening with Badil inside.  Eventually both men came outside and pretended as if nothing had happened inside.  I thought my brother had also left the store from another exit so I went to look for him.  I searched vigorously for 15 minutes and then saw my mother [approaching to walk the boys home], so I rushed to her to tell her what had happened.”

Sharifa and her younger son searched frantically for Badil and finally found him collapsed on the ground near their home.  They rushed to him, thinking he was exhausted from the day’s work and subsequent thrashing, but quickly realized that he was barely breathing: “At this point the whole situation was too much to bear for Sharifa who began to scream and wail hysterically,” the report notes.  Badil was taken to a hospital where, seven hours later, the boy was pronounced dead. His brother “has been traumatised following his brother’s death and hasn’t left his house since and often screams in terror thinking the men responsible will take him too.”

Cameroon: A Bible translator “was butchered to death on Sunday morning [August 25] during an overnight attack while his wife’s arm was cut off,” according to a report:  “Bible translator Angus Abraham Fung was among seven people said to have been killed during an attack carried out by suspected Fulani herdsmen sometime during the early hours of Sunday morning in the town of Wum, according to Efi Tembon, who leads a ministry called Oasis Network for Community Transformation.”  Fulani herdsmen are Muslim and the chief persecutors of Christian farmers in Nigeria.  “They went into houses and pulled out the people,” Tembon explained: “They attacked in the night and nobody was expecting. They just went into the home, pulled them out and slaughtered them.”  Fung’s wife, Eveline Fung, who had her arm hacked off was last reported as receiving a blood transfusion at a local hospital.

Attacks against Apostates and Evangelists

Iran: Authorities sentenced a 65-year-old woman, a Muslim convert to Christianity, to one year in prison, on the charge that she was “acting against national security” and engaging in “propaganda against the system.”  According to the report, “The hearing was owing to her arrest shortly before Christmas when three agents from Iranian intelligence raided her home and took Mahrokh to intelligence offices where she endured ten days of intensive interrogation before she was released after submitting bail of 30 million Toman (US$2,500).”  Friends of the woman said that “the judge was very rude and tried to humiliate Mahrokh after she disagreed with him.”

Separately, a Kurdish bookseller in Bokan, Western Azarbaijan province, was arrested for selling Bibles.  According to the August 27 report, “Mostafa Rahimi was arrested on 11 June on charge of selling bible[s] in his bookstore, and he was released later on bail until the court issued his sentence. Hengaw Organization for Human Rights has learned that Rahimi is sentenced to 3 months and 1 day imprisonment.  Later in mid-August he was arrested again, and he is currently at the central prison of Bokan.”  Another report elaborates: “Iran’s government is officially Islamic, and authorities actively restrict access to Bibles and other Christian literature. Sharing one’s faith is categorized as a criminal offense, usually of the national security nature. The authorities often pressure Christians so extensively, routinely violating their human rights, that they are given no choice but to escape their country.”

Somaliland: An August 16 report shares the experiences a married Muslim woman, 32, underwent after her husband discovered a Bible in her possession.

“I told my husband that I found the Bible in Nairobi and wanted to read it,” the woman responded. “He just pronounced the word talaq [Arabic for divorce] to me. I knew that our marriage had just been rendered null and void because I joined Christianity, so without wasting time I left the homestead….  There and then he took our two daughters [ages 4 and 7] away from me and divorced me.  He gave me a stern warning that I should not come close to the children, and that if I do, he will take the Bible to the Islamic court and I will be killed by stoning for becoming an apostate.”

Her former husband proceeded to expose the clandestine Christian to her Muslim family. “My brothers beat me mercilessly with sticks as well as denying me food,” she said. “I feared to report the case to the police or the local administration, because they will charge me with a criminal offense of apostasy in accordance with the sharia.”  She has since relocated to an undisclosed location: “God has spared my life, and my fellow underground Christians in other regions of Somalia have received me and shared the little they have, but I am very traumatized.”  According to the report,

“Somalia’s constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the propagation of any other religion, according to the U.S. State Department. It also requires that laws comply with sharia (Islamic law) principles, with no exceptions in application for non-Muslims.  Somalia is ranked 3rd on Christian support group Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.”

Pakistan: After opening a summer education program for the youth, a Christian family was “terrorized” and forced to shut down on the accusation that they were clandestinely trying to convert Muslim children to Christianity.  According to a family member: “We started a project for interfaith harmony and education teaching marginalized children from different faiths about a year ago. In June, we started a summer camp that provided a free program for children that have dropped out of school. The design of this program was to provide guidance for these children to become civilized and tolerant.”  Two weeks into the summer program, a group of men, two of whom were armed, stormed into the academy, did violence to the property and harassed the children, and beat one of the instructors: “They threatened us with consequences if the academy was not shut down.  They alleged that we were promoting Christianity and were doing Christian evangelism.  For safety and security, we had no other choice but to obey the extremists and shutdown the academy….  I don’t want to lose my son or any family member. This terrorizing incident has already put us into trauma.”

In a separate incident in Pakistan, around 4 a.m. of August 2, seven Muslim men stormed into a parish house, where they tied up and savagely beat two young priests, Fr. Anthony Abraz and Fr. Shahid Boota, all while they “humiliated and abused them for preaching the Gospel in a Muslim-majority neighborhood.”  The invaders also vandalized the building—including by breaking windows, bookshelves, and cupboards—and desecrated Christian objects, including Bibles, Christian literature, and icons. Afterwards, “We were told we will have to face consequences if this house is not vacated,” Fr. Abraz reported. “They said, ‘We don’t want a Christian center near the mosque.’”

Finally, increasing numbers of Christian girls continue to be targeted for kidnapping, rape, and/or forced conversion in Pakistan.  According to one report,

“In August, Yasmeen Ashraf, age 15, and Muqadas Tufail, age 14, were kidnapped and raped by three men in Kasur. The pair of Christian girls were taken when they were on their way to work as domestic workers.  Also in August, another young Christian girl, named Kanwal, was kidnapped, raped, and forcefully converted to Islam by a group of Muslim men and a cleric in Lala Musa, located in the Gujart District. After reuniting her family, Kanwal shared that she had been beaten, sexually assaulted, and threatened with the deaths of her brothers if she refused to convert to Islam.”

In the previous month of July, at least three similar cases occurred.  “Oppression exists in different layers for Christian girls in Pakistan. They are suffering on the bases of gender, religion, and class. It has been documented that young Christian girls face higher levels of sexual harassment and are persecuted for their Christian faith,” Nabila Feroz Bhatti, a human rights defender in Lahore, said in response to the aforementioned incidents.  Similarly, the Pontifical charity, Aid to the Church in Need, announced in August that it “is sounding the alarm on the plight of young Christian women, and even teenagers, in Pakistan who are forced to convert to Islam.”  “Every year at least a thousand girls are kidnapped, raped, and forced to convert to Islam, even forced to marry their tormentors,” elaborated Tabassum Yousaf, a local Catholic lawyer.

Meanwhile, those who try to protect Christian girls are punished.  On August 16, Maskeen Khan and two other Muslim men attacked the home of Bahadur Masih, a Christian.  While holding a knife, Khan and his partners tried to rape Masih’s daughter, Rachel, but were prevented by the rudely awoken family that immediately and desperately responded.  “Since the Christian family was defending themselves, Khan also got some injuries,” Ahsan Masih Sindhu, a local Christian political leader, reported. “The family handed Khan over to police and he got medical treatment. However, he later died in police custody.”  Police arrested and charged four members of the family with murder, even though they were in their own home protecting their daughter from violent intruders.  Other members of the family have gone into hiding due to threats from the dead would-be rapist’s relatives.  “We are sad about the death of Khan, however, the Christian family did have the right to defend,” Sindhu explained. “The police must conduct a fair investigation into this incident.”  Instead, police are denying the family the “right to defend” itself.  

Attacks on Churches

Algeria: On August 6, police barged into a church during worship service, evacuated reluctant worshippers, and sealed the church building off.  “I am deeply saddened by so much injustice – it breaks my heart,” Messaoud Takilt, the pastor said.  “This is not surprising since other Christian places of worship have been closed and sealed as was the case today. But anyway, we will continue to celebrate our services outside while the Lord gives us grace for a final solution.”  When police denied, with a veiled threat, his request to at least let the worship service conclude,  “The assembly finally yielded and agreed to leave the premises, but with much pain.  Some went out with eyes full of tears. ”  Police proceeded to empty the premises of all furniture and sealed off every door before the distressed pastor (picture here).  Responding to this latest church closure the World Evangelical Alliance issued a statement on August 12 calling on Algeria to cease closing and instead reopen churches. A portion follows:

“We deeply regret that two additional churches were forcibly closed by administrative decisions, in May and in August 2019 in the city of Boudjima, northeast of Tizi-Ouzou in Kabylie Region.  This brings the number of forcibly closed churches to 6, including one house church…. Many more churches are threatened with closure, amid denial of formal registration and recognition by authorities.”

Indonesia: Muslim protestors compelled local authorities to revoke a permit for and cease construction of a Baptist church in Central Java.  On August 1, residents went to the partially constructed church and padlocked its fence.  A meeting was later held between the church, local residents, authorities, and others.  Although the pastor displayed the governmentally issued permit to build a church, Muslim residents insisted that it was wrongly given, leading to a standstill in negotiations.

In the previous month, July, two other churches were shut down in Indonesia following local protests.

Turkey: St. Theodoros Trion, an abandoned, historic church—the original Greek congregation of which was purged by the Ottoman Empire—was vandalized, including with genocidal slogans.  According to the report,

“The vandals sprayed hate speech across the church’s walls. The vandalism was largely a reference to the secularism that Ataturk, modern Turkey’s founder, had forced into the governmental structure….  Just a few years ago, the same church was targeted by Islamist vandals who wrote slogans such as ‘the priest is gone, he went to the mosque’ — a reference to the country’s genocide and the forced conversions which occurred during this time. There are no Christians attending this church. All of the congregants were victims of the genocide. They faced death, deportation, and forced conversions. Those few who survived have since fled the country. The church currently stands as a historic monument to the Christianity that once was commonplace in the region.”

Egypt: A Christian toddler was the latest, if inadvertent, victim of Egypt’s draconian restrictions on churches.    According to an August 21 report, Youssed Ebid, a 4-year-old Christian boy (photo), was struck by a tractor while waiting outdoors for a bus to take him to church in another village.  His own village is currently denied one, forcing its Christian residents to travel long distances to attend church.  Many Christians in Egypt are in the same situation, and accidents during their long treks are not uncommon.

Note: Click here for previous monthly reports of Muslim Persecution of Christians, going back to July 2011.

Jew-Hatred Exposed at University of Minnesota During National Students for Justice in Palestine Conference

U. Minnesota named one of the “Top Ten Colleges that Promote Jew Hatred and Incite Terrorism.”

October 31, 2019 

Frontpagemag.com

In a stealth campaign to reach students directly, the David Horowitz Freedom Center today distributed 2000 newspapers containing its new report on the “Top Ten Colleges that Promote Jew Hatred and Incite Terrorism” as well as posters condemning the Hamas-funded BDS movement against Israel on the University of Minnesota campus. The University of Minnesota is one of the schools named in the report.

The newspaper distribution coincides with the National Students for Justice in Palestine Conference, a highly controversial event known for promoting Jew hatred and anti-Israel terrorism, which will take place this weekend at the University of Minnesota.

Titled “From Campus to Congress: Allied with Terror,” the report documents the malignant spread of Jew hatred in our nation’s academic institutions. “Jew hatred is no longer solely the purview of academic outliers, those institutions known for radical activism and absurdist teachings,” the report explains. “The Jew hatred promoted by Hamas through its front group Students for Justice in Palestine has now trickled down to infect less typically activist campuses in the heartland—including the University of Minnesota which will host this year’s National Students for Justice in Palestine conference.”

A poster included in the pages of each newspaper highlights the role that Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, whose district includes the University of Minnesota, has played in promoting the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The poster features images of Rep. Omar and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, accompanied by a notorious tweet from Omar stating “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” The caption above this image states “BDS: Finishing the Work that Hitler Started.” These same posters were also hung in public locations on the Minnesota campus.

“For nearly two decades, SJP has promoted Hamas lies and propaganda in order to establish a beachhead of support for anti-Israel terrorists on American campuses, resulting in a dramatic rise in anti-Semitic incidents and the harassment of Jewish students,” said David Horowitz, founder of the Freedom Center. “

“American universities like the University of Minnesota allow these terrorist allies to use their authority and prestige to lend this genocidal offensive an aura of respectability,” Horowitz continued. “Our campaign intends to expose SJP and other supporters of BDS as fronts for Hamas and to press universities to cease their funding and support of these organizations.”

Visit https://stopuniversitysupportforterrorists.org/ for more information on SJP’s links to Hamas and to read our new report on the Top Ten Colleges that Promote Jew Hatred and Incite Terrorism.

The David Horowitz Freedom Center, founded in 1988, is a not-for-profit organization located in Sherman Oaks, California. The Center’s mission is to defend free societies like America and Israel, which are under attack by totalitarians both religious and secular, domestic and foreign.

Rep. Ilhan Omar's Armenian Genocide Vote Proves She's an Islamist, Not a Democrat

October 30, 2019 

Daniel Greenfield

You don't need to "follow the benjamins" to see where Rep. Ilhan Omar's allegiances lie.

As the House votes on the Armenian genocide were cast, Rep. Omar would have been expected to follow in the footsteps of other Dems by voting for it. Instead, she Islamist racist voted, "Present."

Why do that?

The Armenian genocide was carried out by Muslims against Christians. Any discussion of it is opposed by the Islamist regime of Erdogan, Turkey's brutal boss, who had threatened Armenians with ethnic cleansing at a press conference in Europe.

Omar's "votes and actions ... do not represent the best of American or Muslim values," said Van Krikorian, the co-chair of the Armenian Assembly of America. "Innocent people were and are being slaughtered, and there is a universal need to defend the victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing, not to stand with or defer to the murderers."

Krikorian said his organization would request a meeting with the freshman Democrat to "clarify her views."

Who's he kidding, of course they represent Muslim values.

In a desperate attempt at raising a politically correct shield, Rep. Omar claimed that she voted present because the slave trade and the deaths of American Indians hadn't been acknowledged. One, of course, has nothing to do with the other. 

Rep. Omar didn't vote 'present' because she's angry that the Trail of Tears hasn't been acknowledged, she's doing it because she supports Islamists.

Omar's home newspaper, The Star Tribune, published an article Wednesday morning that quoted some of her constituents in the Minneapolis and Twin Cities area criticizing her for the "present" vote.

Michele Byfield Angell, the parish council chair at St. Sahag Armenian Church in St. Paul, told the newspaper that she wished Omar had approved the resolution.

"If [she] is going to be representing our community here, she should hear us," Angell was quoted as saying. "If she’s voting present as acknowledging it but not doing anything about it, then what is she doing?"

The only people Rep. Omar represents are Islamists.

lhan Omar's Anti-American, Pro-Islamic Polemic

By Raymond Ibrahim

Last week the House voted overwhelmingly (405-11) in favor of formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide, which was perpetrated by Ottoman Turks.  Among those miniscule few to vote “present,” thereby abstaining from voting, was Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar. Her logic was expressed in a tweet:

A true acknowledgement of historical crimes against humanity must include both the heinous genocides of the 20th century, along with earlier mass slaughters like the transatlantic slave trade and Native American genocide, which took the lives of hundreds of millions of indigenous people in this country.

Such a statement is disingenuous on several levels.  For starters, since when did resolutions that deal with specific historical events -- in this case, the Armenian Genocide -- need to chronicle “earlier mass slaughters”?

One also wonders if the resolution was about, say, condemning the transatlantic slave trade or treatment of Native Americans -- or anything else that depicts Americans negatively -- would Omar have then abstained, arguing that a “true acknowledgement of historical crimes against humanity must include” the Armenian Genocide?

Incidentally, whatever America did to African slaves and Native Americans in the past, it has since at least tried to make reparations to both -- not to mention the Western drive to abolish slavery altogether.  This is much more than can be said about the Muslim world: it still persecutes its natives (Christians) -- those exposed in Omar’s Somalia are instantly slaughtered -- and was forced by Western powers to (formally) abolish slavery.  

But the main point is this: if, as Omar contends, “earlier mass slaughters” should be mentioned, surely it should be those that are connected to the one highlighted in the resolution -- in this case, ones that may possibly show patterns and precedents concerning the events surrounding the Armenian Genocide.  What’s to be learned from a resolution that includes a myriad of unrelated atrocities throughout the millennia other than the sentiment that “all people are equally guilty”? (Which, of course, is one of Omar’s objectives, to relativize Islamic atrocities.)

As it happens, one need look no further than to the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide -- Ottoman Turks -- for an endless list of atrocities that do indeed offer more context and meaning for the topic of the new resolution.

Of all Islamic states throughout history, none were as devoted to the concept of jihad as the Ottoman Turks.  As historian Roger Crowley puts it, the “spirit of militant Islam suited the Turkish fighting spirit perfectly; the desire for plunder was legitimized by pious service to Allah.”

During the Ottoman conquests of Christian Anatolia (Turkey), the Balkans, and elsewhere, the dictates of Islamic law and jihad were closely followed.  “They live by the bow, the sword, and debauchery, finding pleasure in taking slaves, devoting themselves to murder, pillage, spoil,” wrote Gregory Palamas, an Orthodox metropolitan captured by the Ottomans: “and not only do they commit these crimes, but even -- what an aberration -- they believe that God approves them!”

While there are several aspects to the atrocities committed by the Ottomans over their 600-year history, since Omar brought slavery up, let’s focus on just that institution:

The Ottomans enslaved and brutally treated 10 million Europeans.  Consider the eyewitness testimony of Bartolomeo de Giano, an Italian Franciscan who documented how hundreds of thousands of Christians from Hungary were “carried off in just a few days” sometime in 1438, to “serve their [masters’] wicked and filthy pleasures,” and/or to be forced into becoming “Saracens [Muslims] who will later be enemies of the Christians.” Young and old everywhere were seen being “led away in iron fetters tied to the backs of horses,” and “women and children were herded by dogs without any mercy or piety. If one of them slowed down, unable to walk further because of thirst or pain, O Good Jesus! she immediately ended her life there in torment, cut in half.” 

This sort of thing continued for centuries -- right up to (and therefore giving context to) the Armenian Genocide, which saw “women and children… herded by dogs without any mercy” during their death marches.

Whereas the transatlantic slave trade was conducted as a matter of cold business, slavery under Islam was further imbued with hate and cruelty.   This comes out regularly in the sources:  When French priest Jerome Maurand, who as part of the then Franco-Ottoman alliance, witnessed the Turks’ conquest of the tiny Mediterranean island of Lipari in 1544, he failed to comprehend why the Muslims so wantonly tortured the now enslaved population -- including by slowly gutting the old and weak with knives “out of spite.” Unable to hold his tongue, he “asked these Turks why they treated the poor Christians with such cruelty, [and] they replied that such behavior had very great virtue; that was the only answer we ever got.”  (The dumbfounded clergyman apparently failed to realize that “the honour of Islam lies in insulting kufr and kafirs [non-Muslims],” as prominent Indian cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Sirhindi (d. 1624) once said.

Such sadism was less an Ottoman phenomenon and more a Muslim one.  In his Book of Martyrs, John Foxe (d. 1587) wrote, “In no part of the globe are Christians so hated, or treated with such severity, perfidy and cruelty, as at Algiers”; there more than one million Europeans were enslaved, so that “it became a common saying that a Christian slave was scarce a fair barter for an onion.”  Centuries later, Robert Playfair (d. 1899) agreed: “In almost every case they [European slaves in Algiers] were hated on account of their religion.”

Now we have some meaningful context -- in a word, Hate -- for the new resolution dealing with the Armenian Genocide.  Instead of considering a number of unrelated atrocities throughout human history, as the disingenuous Omar would have us do, we can home in on the phenomenon of Islamic hate for non-Muslims.  In so doing, we not only understand why the Armenian Genocide occurred, but why the most recent genocide to occur just a few years ago was also by Muslims in the guise of the Islamic State.

Historical quotes in this article were excerpted from the author’s Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West  --  a book that CAIR and its Islamist allies did everything they could to prevent the U.S. Army War College from learning about.

The Islamic Association of North Texas's Radical Facebook Footprint

By Anne Christine Hoff

The Islamic Association of North Texas (IANT) is well-known as the largest mosque in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Established in the early seventies as a prayer meeting, the mosque first went by the name of Dallas Central Mosque. The congregation of the mosque grew in fits and starts until eventually there was enough money to break ground in Richardson, Texas, where it still stands today.

Back in 2008, IANT played a supporting role in the U.S. vs. Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terrorism financing case in U.S. history. According to Matthew Levitt, in his book Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, when the Holy Land Five were convicted of funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, IANT -- then known as the Dallas Central Mosque -- hosted fundraising events with the goal of raising $500,000 for the Elashi Brothers Defense Fund. The mosque also had personal ties to at least two of the Elashi brothers, who were part of the Holy Land Five. Bashan Elashi was a former board member of the mosque, and Ghassan Elashi was active in an affiliated Islamic school.

Today IANT is a proud member of the Richardson Interfaith Alliance and their imam, Shpendim Nadzaku, is an active member of the Interfaith Council of Thanksgiving Square, a Dallas interfaith organization whose mission, according to its website, is “to provide harmony, diversity and goodwill among all faiths, as we unite on the common ground of gratitude.” But the mosque’s Facebook page suggests that its days of embracing radical ideologies are not yet over. For example, in August of this year, IANT posted this image on its Facebook page:

“This religion will reach everywhere in the world…Allah will not leave a house or residence except that Allah will cause this religion to enter it, by which the honorable will be honored and the disgraceful will be disgraced. Allah will honor the honorable with Islam and disgrace the disgraceful with unbelief.”

Several other recent posts appear to relish the torment that the non-Muslim will endure in Hell.  

An image posted a few weeks later suggests that the status of the non-Muslim will always be lower than that of the Muslim and that the unbeliever will be forever punished by Allah for misleading faithful Muslims (“Mumin”):

 “Whoever accuses a mumin of something that is not true, Allah will make him dwell in flowing pus on Yawm al-Qiyaamah."

That post seemed to raise eyebrows among IANT’s supporters as well, with one Facebook commenter noting, “as an institution, IANT should be a little more thoughtful of what kind of messages it throws out there.”

IANT’s Facebook posts indicate a preoccupation with the torments that await those who disbelieve. For example, on September 4th, IANT posted that Allah has prepared “a way of torment” for those who disbelieve, and on September 18th, IANT made the following statement:

“The hammer used to punish a disbeliever is so heavy that it can reduce a mountain to dust. The disbeliever screams with pain and every creation can hear him besides humans and Jinns.” (Mishkat).

On July 13 of this year, IANT presented 17 reasons for “The Importance of the Tawheed” (the Oneness of Allah), featuring a variety of hadiths (meaning recorded sayings or actions of the Prophet Mohammad). Reason #9 seems to endorse the view that Jews and Christians are cursed because of their stubborn denial of the truth:

“9. The prophet mentioned it during his last illness (shows its importance) when he said ‘the curse of Allah be upon the Jews and the Christians for they took the graves of their prophets as places of worship (bukhari).’”

Reason #14 discusses a Jew who was saved from the torments of hell through conversion:

“14. If a person dies upon this he will enter Paradise. When the Jewish boy accepted Islam, the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) said, ‘All praise is for Allah who saved this boy from the fire.” Although this person had no good deeds. (Bukhari)”

The quote is from Ibn Taymiyyah, a medieval Islamic scholar popular with Salafists. This sect of Islamic jurisprudence emphasizes the earliest companions (salaf) of the prophet and calls on its adherents to return to the ways of Islam’s earliest and strictest Muslims.

Several other images posted by IANT on Facebook this past August also seem to confirm IANT’s Salafi leanings.  “The happy individual is the one who adheres to that which the Salaf were upon and avoids that which the later people introduced,” notes one post. Another post, “Upon you is to follow the narrations and the way of the Salaf.”

A radical emphasis on Tawheed (oneness) is a predominate feature of Salafism, as noted by the George Washington University Program on Extremism’s Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchen’s monograph “Salafism in America: History, Evolution, Radicalization.”  Such an emphasis can lead to the deliberate and even violent denigration of other faiths, raising serious questions about how an Islamic center like IANT can participate in interfaith gatherings in good faith.

IANT’s Facebook page vividly and even obsessively focuses on torment of the Jews and Christians.

The churches and synagogues that make the Richardson Interfaith Alliance and the Interfaith Council of Thanksgiving Square might want to consider what message their joining of hands with IANT represents. Does IANT really “[provide] harmony, diversity and goodwill among all faiths,” as is the Interfaith alliance’s mandate? And if these sorts of statements are the kind that IANT openly promotes on social media, what is it saying behind closed door?  

Anne-Christine Hoff is the Dallas associate of the Counter Islamist Grid. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.